A Royal Affair (Arcel, 2012)
The themes of surrendering to a self-torturing, illicit passion is rote, but the theme of struggling with a temptation to seize power for the greater good...well, okay, it's pretty rote, too.
The themes of surrendering to a self-torturing, illicit passion is rote, but the theme of struggling with a temptation to seize power for the greater good...well, okay, it's pretty rote, too.
All of which might explained why Spike Lee’s latest film, Red Hook Summer, manages to seem fresh and provocative even as it’s undermined by some of the most uneven filmmaking I've seen all year.
Watching Les Misérables is a bit like listening to a young pop star do a cover of a Beatles classic. She can have all the talent in the world, but it still sounds somehow wrong.
The same thing that makes The Sessions better than expected is what makes it naggingly incomplete: it takes sex seriously.
Love Birds is an innocuous romantic comedy from New Zealand featuring a sad mope (Rhys Darby) who adopts and nurses a duck and eventually falls for the woman (Sally Hawkins) to whom he turns for advice.
I will say that judging nobody but myself, I feel convicted for the money and time I spend that create an inducement--some might say a temptation--for other human beings to put their long-term health at risk for my pleasure.
The easiest defense of Yogawoman, if defense is needed, is that its leisurely pace and unstructured direction is emblematic of its subject matter. If you are restless or bored, perhaps you are out of alignment and should try yoga...
James Rutenbeck's Scenes from a Parish is the sort of documentary essay film that makes one pretty darn grateful for the 00.01% of the the federal budget that is granted to PBS.
There have now been enough films about--or set in and around-- the Holocaust that it is almost possible to group these films into subgenres.
Pink Ribbons, Inc. is really three different documentaries: one that works, one that doesn't, and one that is mildly effective but distracts and detracts from the principle message.